Endless Hunger
by tarrin4ever
Summary: Munashii was a powerful demon before a skillfully trained monk struck him down. Now, 50 years before Kagome frees Inuyasha from the tree, he searches for a way to become whole once more. If Kikyo doesn't hold the key, maybe someone else will...
1. Chapter 1

**50 years ago **

Dusk settled over the sloping countryside. The shades of night gathered within the folds of the land and beneath the trees in the woods, and the shadows became as dark as the hidden face of the moon.

As the last traces of daylight vanished, the youkai known as Munashii began swimming through those shadows like an eel through oily black water.

_I must regain myself. _

His true self had been taken from him, reformed to take a more solid shape. The shape of a lower youkai, with a serpent-like body that appeared to slither through the air, a ridiculously weaker form of life compared to what he once was. Robbed of his powers, he spent his days seething in anger and conjuring up hundreds of different fantasies of revenge within his mind. And there was always the hunger…

_How dare that fool monk exorcise me! _

Once he had been a great spirit-oni, one that sustained itself by feeding off the evil emotions of the lesser beings of the world. He had been born of the collective desires of the men of the war that relished battle and fought for greed and power. Using his spirit-form that hid his true self from mortal eyes, he was free to manipulate men in order to better feed his hunger. He'd whisper lies, spreading rumours of hatred, fear, even lust. And when the soul was completely corrupted, he could enter the body and devour it whole. Mind, body and soul, they all became his. All would be used to fuel his growing presence. Great his power had become over the years, having devoured countless human souls that had succumbed to his dark taint.

Munashii'shunger would never dissipate though. It would always remain within him, like a great void. Its depths were infinite. The more he devoured, the more it would grow within him. And although his very nature marked him as evil, his primary goal was that of survival. His very existence was built upon feeding his hunger; malice existed to him only as nourishment.

_I was indomitable. No mortal could resist my power._

It was when he had chosen to spread through a village near an old Buddhist temple that he'd finally met an end to the only existence he had ever known.

Humans hold onto such strange ways of living. Values and morals were non-existent in Munashii's mind. Only hunger. Those humans who followed precepts, the monks, were stranger still. Desire and greed were always repressed. They worked to contain their vices in order to achieve their eventual nirvana. He knew it to be folly, but by doing so, those monks provided him a feast of pent-up emotion. So ripe when he eventually made them break their own laws, utterly seduced by his machinations.

Munashiiwould have eventually consumed the entire village and temple if only not for the young novice who guarded the temple storeroom. Only this monk had noticed the vile corruption that plagued his home. He watched as his teachers and friends began to turn back on their own teachings and way of life. He had even found in himself strange behaviours manifesting that weren't his own.

_Curse that wretched mortal, and his whole misbegotten race!_

Alone, the monk had challenged the dark force that had threatened his home. Using ancient holy relics hidden in the storeroom he was assigned to guard, he managed to bind the spirit of the youkai through incantation and prayer, and drawing the creature into his own plain of existence. His powers of corruption severed by his corporeal form, the youkai's spell over the village was broken.

Angered at the loss of his power, the youkai lashed out at the young monk. But the loss of his power coupled with an onslaught of mystical sutras and the monk's holy Shakujou left the youkai utterly defeated. He had barely enough strength to escape the temple.

So he began his search for ways to return to what he once was, and have his vengeance against the foul monk that had diminished him so. Tales of a sacred miko relic drew Munashiito this region. By acquiring this _sacred jewel_, he'd be able to recover his lost powers and undo the binding spell of the monk. He would also be able to satisfy the uncontrollable hunger that ravaged his mind. Lost were his powers, but not his hunger. It began to feel less a void and more like a terrible vortex that would eventually consume him as the weeks went by without his sustenance.

_Hungry.. So hungry._

Upon discovering the location of the jewel he thought he'd finally be whole again. But it would never be so. The woman that guarded it was many times more powerful then the monk who had bested him months ago. She'd even enslaved a hanyou to protect both her and the jewel from others who would seek to steal it, be they human or youkai.

Desperation was new to him, as were all the emotions that ran through his mind. The more he was a part of the physical world, the more he found himself emitting the same evil feelings that had nourished him for so long. Now he felt true fear for the first time.

A shudder spread through the youkai's frail body. An overwhelming force began radiating incredibly strong emotions in all directions. He could feel sorrow and pain echoing all throughout the hills. Something was calling out to him, something filled to the core with uncontrollable rage and suffering. He shuddered once again as he drank in the sweet torment the likes of which he'd never felt before. Perhaps it would be able to allow him to achieve what he so desperately sought after.

He began to drift towards the source of the emanations that spoke to the hunger within him. His last vestige of hope now sat on what he'd find searching through the surrounding darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

_So sweet. It's calling to me._

The strange force that had completely enthralled Munashii continued luring him towards its source. With every span of ground he covered, the more intense the emanations felt.

Deep within his body, a whirlpool of youki energy began to reawaken and start drawing in the surrounding corruption. In what seemed to him like ages ago, he fondly remembered using that flow of power to spread his influence and feed off the negative emotions of his human hosts. But the dark vortex had been unable to penetrate through the cursed exoskeleton that now surrounded him.

He attempted channelling his power out through his shell to try and manipulate humans only a foot away. All he had gained from that attempt was failure and even more of his own despair. With the power contained within him, he began resorting to feed off his own essence out of desperation. Left unchecked, this destructive habit would eventually kill him.

Now, a new source of nourishment for the void had broken through his body's barrier. Not because of any success on Munashii's part, _it _wanted to be absorbed. He couldn't have prevented it from entering him even if he wanted to.

Leaving the shade of the forest behind, Munashii began travelling through open fields towards the distant hills. He was now totally exposed, and would be an easy target for predators that lived off lower youkai.

_I am not alone!_

His instincts alerted him to the presence of other creatures above him. Their shadows soon began to enter his field of vision. Those beastly silhouettes matched well to the youkai they belonged to. They too had abandoned their secluded dwellings and taken flight along the same path he was travelling. No doubt they were also being drawn by the same unseeing force just as he was.

They were not predators, and he was not their prey. Understanding this allowed Munashii to quickly dispel his fear.

Together they formed a grotesque company of flying horrors that could very well give chills to the trees themselves. Any greater youkai who had earlier espied potential prey were suddenly put off, and did not dare attack this larger concentration. Separate, these lower youkai were weak and easy to kill. But together, they were a potentially dangerous foe to those hunters.

Soon the swarm of youkai came across a small cave, the entrance emitting a weak glow from a source within.

Within the cave they discovered the horribly charred form of some poor creature. It lay next to a small lantern, the source of the light, and was wrapped in what appeared to them as a strange cloth cocoon. The body lay absolutely still and reeked of rotting flesh. Munashii would have surely though it to be dead if only its very life force wasn't screaming out to him.

But this was the source of the emanations. Being so close to it sent spasms through Munashii, he was practically in a state of ecstasy.

He thought perhaps it could have been an injured youkai, one that had been hunted by the local youkai exterminators and managed to evade annihilation. Or worse, maybe more of those foul monks managed to contain its spirit. Trapping it within the cave, letting it slowly suffer through an agonizing existence of confinement.

_Just like me. Cursed monk, I shall make him weep for death before I_-

As he and the horde of youkai spirits hovered over the body, it spoke!

"My soul is rancid to the core yet it still holds value."

_Soul. A human? No, that's impossible. A filthy human could never have this sort of power over so many youkai._

But no human Munashii had ever encountered had a soul so corrupted by darkness. A youkai may be savage and bloodthirsty, but few were genuinely evil by nature. To live in this world, one could show no weakness for fear of being devoured by their fellow youkai. His own cold nature was born out of the need to survive. His hunger was not his to control. Yet even some of the most despicable of youkai did not possess as much as one breath of this creature's sin.

The human spoke again, this time his voice more laboured and strained. Whatever strength he was holding onto was fading fast.

"Feast on my flesh. I must possess my former mobility, then the jewel will be mine. Not to mention the lovely maiden Kikyou."

_What is it he proposes?_

_Has such an act ever been performed with a human before? What good could it possibly do for him? And what other use does this man have for the priestess if not for the jewel?_

Munashii had trouble fully comprehending what the man intended. Questions swam through his head, and fewer answers paired with them. He'd once heard a story, that in times of great need some youkai were able to join in power and form, and thus become beings greater in power. Together, they could become more powerful then the sum of their parts.

But he'd never heard of there being such a joining that included a human. To do so could upset the balance, potentially create a horrid abomination. It would be neither fully youkai nor human. Calling it even a hanyou would probably further dishonour the name of that subspecies.

"Feast on me demons, devour me! And in exchange, bestow me with your mobility and strength!"

As the burnt man uttered his final words, he sent a massive blast of fury through the multitude of youkai. That shockwave broke through Munashii's earlier reservations and triggered within him a seizure of exhilaration as his body soaked up the hate. This was as close as he'd ever felt to regaining his old self; he would not let this opportunity slip away. He and the rest of the youkai that had also become increasingly excited from the man's mental cries wasted no more time and dove into their willing banquet.

Tooth and claw sank into the man's body. Limbs were quickly stripped of their meat, and his organs were punctured and leaked vital fluids. But the man never once screamed, or even so much as winced while he was being devoured. Even though it was nearly unrecognisable, Munashii could have sworn that through the whole ordeal, the man was smiling.

Their feasting soon started to become more frenzied. Overcome by their bloodlust, youkai began devouring the other youkai in the cave. They in turn were also devoured by other mindless youkai. Within that cave, an orgy of death and feasting took place that lasted hours on end. More and more began to spill into the cave, smelling the blood from outside and eager to participate in the feeding frenzy.

Among those that were gorging themselves, Munashii could make out a select few that were present from the start. They managed to avoid being devoured, and proved to be deadly to be near. Like the horrid snake youkai, engaged in swallowing prey far too large for it to be even possible to swallow. Yet it did! Or the many-tentacled youkai, extending it's brown appendages to capture prey outside what they considered its proximity. A costly mistake. And that spider.

The Red Spider. It could have been there almost before the swarm even arrived. It had hardly even moved from its spot right above the human. It still gazed at the remains of the body, as deep in concentration as it had been when he arrived. He then considered whether the human had earlier addressed the silent brood of youkai, or maybe just one in particular?

He momentarily drew more of his attention away from his bounty, and began noticing more from the spider. It had weaved multiple webs onto many of the strong demons, and quickly reeled them in the moment they paused out of momentary exhaustion. It would not openly fight them, but watch from the shadows and struck only when it knew it was safer.

A sudden surge in youki snapped Munashii out of his close observation, and once again he began his own feasting.

As the number of dead and feasting youkai grew, so did the concentration of youki energy within the cave. It saturated itself into the creatures still living, and strength was awakening in some that they never knew they possessed. What once was a swarm of lower youkai now had the strength and power to challenge even their former hunters. And while Munashii was both feasting and avoiding becoming a feast himself, he started to feel himself regain what he had lost, and had sought desperately to reclaim.

_Yessss! I am becoming whole again. I can feel the connection with my youki. My hunger can finally be satisfi-_

Lost in his own euphoria, he was unaware of the radical changes taking place within the cave. The energy that was building in the cave was becoming tainted with an overwhelming corruption, and was spreading to the cave's inhabitants. Youkai that accidentally made contact with each other soon found that they were instantly bound together. Their flesh became one, and their bones fused into mangled appendages.

The discarded bones and flesh that littered the cave began to twitch and spasm. Concentrated youki soaked into every tissue, every cell, and every mind that existed within the cave. Youkai began screaming simultaneously, creating an unearthly resonance that filled the cave. Such a sound would be more suited to a place in hell.

And Munashii suddenly found himself quickly being enveloped by masses of meat and bone. The whole swarm within the cave was consumed in a blinding flash of energy. They were all instantly drawn into the torrent of youki that surrounded the unholy mound of crippled but still living youkai. The horrid composition of youkai contracted and expanded as more were being drawn in.

As the last of the youkai were absorbed into the fold, the mound became still. Protruding claws became motionless, antennae ceased to twitch. Beneath the deformed mass, the very soil was scarred black. No grass would ever grow there again; the taint would remain for centuries. What once was a screaming mass of horrors was now calm and unmoving.

Deep within the deformed heap, Munashii's consciousness began to fade, and was lost among the other minds that found themselves dissipating and unable to escape from their dark prison.


End file.
